BS: Best Words

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 05 Jul 00 - 06:30 AM

Scotland has it share of Liff-type placenames.

two of my faves are: Throsk, and Menstrie..

I always thought that Throsk sounded like a disease that sheep might get... and Menstrie could be a phase of the moon, perhaps?

Cheers

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: p.j.
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 03:04 PM

I like words that make people do silly things with their mouths. Try these out loud and try to look dignified...

Wasps

Vests

Desks

And while we're at it, am I the only one who has trouble casually saying the phrase DIGITAL TRADITION?

One other thing... I've been on a quest for the last couple of years to find 2 words in the English language.

First: The ONE-syllable word with the MOST number of letters. (So far I've collected a few with nine letters, can anyone give me a legitimate offering with ten?)

Next: The word with the most SYLLABLES and FEWEST number of letters. (Currently I have a couple of three-syllable words made of only 4 letters.)

Anybody wanna play? :o)

PJ

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: bbelle
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 02:32 PM

fond affection dearth plethora equality

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: mactheturk
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 02:28 PM

b'twix 'n b'tween...

fortnight....

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 05:29 PM

My wife's mother used to have a boarder, very nice fellow, except for an 'interesting' habit...when there was shared food in the refrigerator (i.e.,ice cream), he would never want to eat the last serving, so he would take half of it...which led to some VERY small portions. It has become a joke in our family in refering to a bit of stuff almost too small to matter, but still put back in the ('fridge'), that there is only a "Weiseger" left, after his last name. Has kind of a ring to it..I can imagine 100 years from now scholars arguing over the origin and spelling.."Weissiger"..."Wiesiger".."wissiger"..etc..

"There any of that chawklet pie left, Maw?" "Wal, Juniors been at it...only about a Weiseger left"

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Jul 00 - 02:10 PM

Ah, Wainscotting = that word that sounds like a village in Dorset.... according to Monty Python that is...

And I came across defenestration yesterday in a book. Funny how these things happen. I was reading the book in Sheffield..... I do believe there's another thread about that!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Callie
Date: 02 Jul 00 - 03:24 AM

Then there's all the Meaning of Liff words" name places which are used to describe phenomena which don't have a name. Such as "Epping" used to describe the pointless gesture you make trying to catch the waiter's attention.

My friends and I do the same for Australian places and concepts which are as yet nameless. Such as:

Dapto - one of those multiple powerboards of which some in-points are unusable because one of the plugs is oversized.

Fairfield - the attractive LAST piece on the plate, left there in politeness.

Bexley - the undesirable last piece on the plate, left there because no one wants it.

Sefton - to eat the Fairfield.

Leppington - the sip of drink had by a singer directly after finishing a song, in that awkward moment when people are clapping and you don't know what to do with your hands. Sometimes a Leppington can take the form of fiddling with the tuning keys of the guitar.

Callie

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: MarkS
Date: 01 Jul 00 - 09:15 PM

Flusterpated - For when you are out of sorts but don't know why.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: GUEST,Free Reed
Date: 01 Jul 00 - 07:09 PM

Mullachabu. Now there's a good word. FreeReed

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 01 Jul 00 - 04:16 PM

'Me oldun's avin a canary!' =i believe my mother may be a little upset!

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 01 Jul 00 - 03:45 PM

The bontiest chompers in the clundy = Good food

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Jul 00 - 03:01 PM

shamelessly cut & pasted..but funny!

The Washington Post's 'Style Invitational' asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are some recent winners:

Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of obtaining sex.

Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the recipient who doesn't get it.

Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease.

Burglesque: A poorly planned break-in. (See: Watergate)

Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like a serious bummer.

Glibido: All talk and no action.

Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a refund from the IRS, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid & an asshole.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: mactheturk
Date: 01 Jul 00 - 02:34 PM

Phrases too like..."harder than woodpecker lips" or "steeper than a cow's face"... etc....

MP

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 04:17 PM

You're either brother or lover.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 04:12 PM

Identify yourself, Free Reed

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Bert
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 04:10 PM

Othona! FreeReed? Did you have to go scuba diving to find that one?

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 03:38 PM

Thanks for "sennight." There's one I can use, although not as often as I find use for omphaloscopist (navel-gazing singer-songwriter - akin to omphaloskepsis).

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: GUEST,Free Reed
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 12:37 PM

Blackwater

Northey

Osea

Pyefleet

Nass

Bench Head

Othona

Nice words, eh Skipjack?

FreeReed

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: The Walrus at work
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 12:27 PM

Great selections. If you are allowing "discombobulate" can I add "oojar" (or to give it it's full version "oojar-cum-pivvy", one of those whatsits...thingamebobs..you know..er..where you can't remember the name of something. Another favourite is "sennight" an archaich alternative to "week" (presumably the same vintage as fortnight).

Walrus

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 11:36 AM

Slubberdegullion (Sloven)

Snorkel

Punnet

Antidisestablishmentarianism

Zeal Monachorum (pronounced by true Devonians as Zeal Me Knacker Um)

Skipjack

...... Skipjack

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Mbo
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 11:24 AM

Ha ha Bert! Reminds me of the town Chipping Cleghorn in "By The Pricking Of My Thumbs," my favorite Agatha Christie book. Have you ever heard the Monty Python radio bit about the strange names of towns you find in the English countryside, when traveling on a train? It's hilarious!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 11:16 AM

Snicket is indeed northern (yorkshire) wordiness - it means those little gaps in between buildings - nowhere near wide enough to even be a lane, and maybe only just qualifying as a path!
One of my favourite words is parapet, just for the sound, and discombobulate. Priddy!

jayohjo XX

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: GUEST,John Hill
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 11:11 AM

Not that it really matters but I was in Whitby for the Moor and Coast at the time not Cleethorpes.. it must be a local word

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: GUEST,John Hill
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 11:06 AM

I asked someone the way whilst I was at Cleethorpes Folk Festival and they directed me down a "snicket" which seems to be a short cut ... wonderful word.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Bert
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 10:40 AM

Ah place names... Stanstead Mountfitchet, Chipping Ongar, Stapleford Tawny, Stanford Le Hope, Corringham, Fobbing, Woodham Ferrers, Toot Hill, Little End. And that's just in Essex, you can go on forever. Here

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 10:29 AM

Lonnen, Stob, plodge, spelk(like a skelf but longer and more jagged), Cowped his creels (tripped over his own feet), Schlemeil, Unpicked (as in when you take a banjo players picks away):-)

and those three little words.... "have another pint?"

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 10:22 AM

I like... Turgid. Croak/croaker. Duumvir/duumvirate. Hedgehog.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: alison
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 10:06 AM

steughey (pronounced st-yucky) - Irish(or whatever) meal made up whatever you can find all bunged in together.....

I like skelf (splinter)too.. but no one knows what I'm talking about

sheugh (pronounced- sh-yuck)- meaning a ditch

"he's as lazy as sheugh water"

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Mbo
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 10:05 AM

It sure is, Kim! Sortoff...it's a disciplinary thing, as in "those drill instructors at boot camp will fix YOUR boots!" Also know to Hank Jr. fans as an "Attitude Adjustment"!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Kim C
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 09:53 AM

Mbo, is fixing one's boots at all akin to cleaning one's clock?!

Hooligan is another of my favorites, as someone mentioned above.

KFC

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: GUEST,Banjo Johnny
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 03:13 AM

houligan, Godfrey Daniel, rhythm ... floor-mat (for format), Tennessee ...

MBO - thanks for the info on Bob's your Uncle! Johnny in Oklahoma City

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 02:54 AM

My favorite version of "The Four Marys" or "Mary Hamilton" begins with "Yestreen there were four Marys..." Now that's a lovely word (meaning "yester-evening"). Playing the Dictionary Game, also called "Fictionary," has contributed words like "zarf" and "finjan" (sometimes spelled findjan) to our vocabulary. Remember "cloop," Kathy?

A friend in Vermont threatened to name his brand-new daughter "gasoline drum" because he thought it had a beautiful, sonorous ring to it. He was torn between that and "cellar door."

I'm partial to words like "solivagant," having been one for most of the early part of my life.

The variation of the Dictionary Game described above sounds like great fun. We'll have to give it a go! Sandy

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 02:21 AM

Ah, I tried so hard to get Phoebe to say theodolite..... I have managed to teach her the first verse of Omar Khyam's rubbermat...... (isn't that on the wrong word thread? - have heard it referred to as Victor Khyam's - he liked it so much he bought the poem....)

And I've been to Ryme Intrinsica too... Ever been to Kingsbury Episcopi? Or Toller Porcorum?? What about Whitchurch Canonicorum?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Mbo
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 12:33 AM

I know about that, Bill! They tried saying those big words to me when I was a baby too, but I always said them back!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: bbelle
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 12:32 AM

Midchuck ... you must be referring to the word "She-it" ... moonchild

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Jun 00 - 12:27 AM

when my son was a baby, I used to pretend to teach him to talk by looking him in the eye and demanding....

"Ok, now say 'prestidigitation' for daddy"...

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: GUEST,Banjo Johnny
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 07:08 PM

I'm pretty sure Kerensky was defenestrated.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Wesley S
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 05:45 PM

"Dang nab it" and "God dog it"

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Big Mick
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 05:25 PM

Craic

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: phil h
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 05:20 PM

underwhelmed

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: lamarca
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 05:19 PM

Folly, Dissipation and Sloth

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Mbo
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 05:18 PM

Wetwang? Also known as Nindalf? Someone's a Tolkien fan!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 05:13 PM

whimsical , chime, breeze, willow are lovely words and some place names too - Rime Intrisica , Wharam Percy , Wetwang and Stoke Poges...

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Midchuck
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 05:09 PM

I'm a confirmed yankee, but partial to the southern prounouciation (especially when angry or excited) of the most common taboo word meaning excrement - turning it into two personal pronouns.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: GUEST,Mbo_at_ECU
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 04:16 PM

Yes there is, Kim. You got it right "defenestrate". Not to be rude or anything, but defenestrattion is really not so specific as Clinton put it. Throwing anything out a window is defenestration, not merely humans for the sake of murder. I have a cousin who wanted to defenestrate all his teachers at school...because my and told them they would "fix his boots!"

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Kim C
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 04:12 PM

Could I be "disbridgeled" if I'm having trouble with the bridge on my fiddle?!? Is there a verb form of "defenestration?" Like "to defenestrate"?

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 01:26 PM

Ah, dictionary games. We had one once it a cognition seminar where you take a word that has a lot of different meanings, go to the dictionary and read one key word from each definition until a player gets the word. Thus:

Lawyers, alcoholic, ballet, exclude, rigid, solid, obstacle, stripe... get it yet? The word is BAR. Try it!

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Ringer
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 01:19 PM

Just for their sound:"polyp" and "malkin" (the meaning of the first is less pleasant)

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 01:14 PM

Defenestration... the act of killing someone by throwing them out a hight window... that's a great word!

{~`

Subject: RE: BS: Best Words
From: Peter T.
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 12:38 PM

blithe.


yours, Peter T.